Health insurance rate hikes prompt more criticism from Obama administration - washingtonpost.com

Health insurance rate hikes prompt more criticism from Obama administration - washingtonpost.com: "The Obama administration plans to step up its criticism Thursday of health insurers' recent efforts to raise their rates -- an attempt to harness public aggravation with the industry and rebuild momentum for broad changes to the nation's health-care system.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has scheduled a late-morning news conference, at which she is to cite half a dozen examples, from Maine to Washington state, in which insurers have in the past year sought large premium increases on people who buy coverage individually. In all but one case, according to a report to be released by HHS, state insurance regulators rejected all or part of the requested increases.

The administration's attempt to focus attention on insurance prices broadens a strategy it began to employ 10 days ago, when Sebelius wrote a pointed letter to one insurer, Anthem Blue Cross of California. She demanded to know why the company had alerted about 800,000 policyholders that their premiums would rise by as much as 39 percent because of the escalating costs of health care. In response to HHS's inquiry, Anthem postponed the increase by two months."